SINGAPORE — Acting is a tough and cruel business — especially when you are romancing someone nearly twice your age. At least, that is what Julie Tan, one of the stars of the MediaCorp Channel 8 drama series In The Name Of Love, thinks.

The show follows Song Xinren (Pierre Png), who gets acquainted with a mysterious femme fatale, Pan Xiaomin (Felicia Chin), and an adorable vagrant, Bai Xiaoshan (Julie Tan). He falls for Xiaomin, only to realise that she has been hired to con him. He soon also learns that Xiaoshan isn’t a vagrant after all, but an heiress to a fortune, and that she has been secretly in love with him.

Although Tan, who’s 21, said age didn’t matter when it comes to affairs of the heart, she still found it difficult to embrace her onscreen love interest Png, who is 40.

“I didn’t dare to hug him — you could feel a barrier between (our bodies), because I kept some space between us,” the actress laughed. “I didn’t realise it until he pointed it out! I think it was subconscious. It was really awkward, because he told me to just hug him properly.”

It probably didn’t help that Tan is young enough to have been fathered by Png.

“When I first met him, I was like, ‘Hi, Dad!’” she quipped. “He said it would be nice to have a daughter around my age. And it’s true: If he had done something wrong when he was 18 or 19, he would probably have had a daughter like me.”

Ouch. It’s okay, Pierre. We still think you’re sexy!

Watch In The Name Of Love on weekdays at 9pm on MediaCorp TV Channel 8.